The Chain Breaker: A Dairy Queen Like No Other

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According to DeLeon, in the 1950s, Dairy Queen didn't have preferred vendors or a corporate warehouse, and salesmen often stopped by to show off new products. They took their time with each shop in an effort to create lasting relationships with store owners. One day two Kohler salesmen stopped by Litherland's Dairy Queen to see if he needed anything and got to talking about new ideas for frozen novelties. Litherland pressed a thick, round disk of ice cream onto a piece of cardboard. One of the salesman put a tongue depressor through at the base, creating a sort of ice cream lollipop. As a final touch, they dipped the whole thing in chocolate.

"They held it up and someone said, 'isn't that a dilly!'" DeLeon recounts, before shrugging his shoulders and explaining that dilly was basically 1950s slang for "eureka."

Soon operators from Dairy Queens all over the Midwest came to the store in Moorhead to learn how to make the Dilly Bar. The treat became so popular that medical supply companies were constantly sold out of tongue depressors. "Now they're specifically made for Dairy Queen," says DeLeon.